/also: Archimedes sought to burn a fleet of Roman ships using the Sun. The skyscraper melted plastic in a stationary vehicle. Point: Mythbusters. Seriously, they've tested this myth like 3 times now... Even Obama couldn't get them to do it.

Mythbusters is prepared lines and pandering to the lowest denominator.

They haven't ever busted shiat, even when trying to look past all their bullshiat, the holes in scientific methods is obvious. If your understanding of authorities of science relies on them, you'd be a moron, which is probably also why their show is doing so well, alongside "Here comes Honey Booboo".

And yet, they still do more for science and intelligent thought than people biatching on the internet.

They did not. If they had used modern reflective materials aimed at a stationary target, they would undoubtedly have succeeded in setting it on fire. That's not hard to do.

Now, try doing the same using only materials available to the ancient inhabitants of Syracuse and you will only succeed in elevating the temperature of the target after a very long time, but you will not succeed in setting it on fire. The Mythbusters did all they could, including concentrating all the mirrors on one stationary boat (remember, Archimedes' death ray was supposed to have sunk a whole moving fleet), and ignoring the fact that given the orientation of Syracuse's harbour, the sun would have been at his back.

One more thing: in TFA, the plastic mirrors did not catch fire, they melted, which can be done at temperatures much lower than those necessary to ignite wood.

sjmcc13:The biggest problem with their death ray tests is the people they had aiming the mirrors, Archamedes would have had people with the profesionalism of soldiers, they used high school/university students doing it for a laugh.

I used to be a soldier, and I can tell you that it wouldn't have made any difference. Professionalism can't overcome biology for more than a few seconds; even if you had the hands of a surgeon, your own heartbeat and breathing would be enough to disrupt it at any range- like, say the distance to a ship in a harbor.

/also: Archimedes sought to burn a fleet of Roman ships using the Sun. The skyscraper melted plastic in a stationary vehicle. Point: Mythbusters. Seriously, they've tested this myth like 3 times now... Even Obama couldn't get them to do it.

Mythbusters is prepared lines and pandering to the lowest denominator.

They haven't ever busted shiat, even when trying to look past all their bullshiat, the holes in scientific methods is obvious. If your understanding of authorities of science relies on them, you'd be a moron, which is probably also why their show is doing so well, alongside "Here comes Honey Booboo".

And yet, they still do more for science and intelligent thought than people biatching on the internet.

Not really. I've learned far more in bullshiat Fark threads than I ever have watching their crappy show.

Rising Ape:Kit Fister: joeshill: Dow Jones and the Temple of Doom: The Mythbusters never "bust" anything but their own ineptitude.

Mythbusters, whose motto is: We couldn't figure out how to do it, therefore it cannot be done.

For both of you:

[imgs.xkcd.com image 599x524]

Feynman was in fact very aware of the importance of rigour, as you can see if you read his comments on psychologists' rat-running experiments. Bad experiments are worse than useless because they make you think you've discovered something when in fact you haven't. "Bookkeeping" indeed...

They did not. If they had used modern reflective materials aimed at a stationary target, they would undoubtedly have succeeded in setting it on fire. That's not hard to do.

Now, try doing the same using only materials available to the ancient inhabitants of Syracuse and you will only succeed in elevating the temperature of the target after a very long time, but you will not succeed in setting it on fire. The Mythbusters did all they could, including concentrating all the mirrors on one stationary boat (remember, Archimedes' death ray was supposed to have sunk a whole moving fleet), and ignoring the fact that given the orientation of Syracuse's harbour, the sun would have been at his back.

One more thing: in TFA, the plastic mirrors did not catch fire, they melted, which can be done at temperatures much lower than those necessary to ignite wood.

Myth Busted !

I would rebut that to say Adam and Jamie are not achemedes nor are they a sniper or anything some of these extraordinary people.

There are situations that are IMPOSSIBLE to replicate in a lab. Strange shiat happens and its the stuff of legends.

/also: Archimedes sought to burn a fleet of Roman ships using the Sun. The skyscraper melted plastic in a stationary vehicle. Point: Mythbusters. Seriously, they've tested this myth like 3 times now... Even Obama couldn't get them to do it.

Mythbusters is prepared lines and pandering to the lowest denominator.

They haven't ever busted shiat, even when trying to look past all their bullshiat, the holes in scientific methods is obvious. If your understanding of authorities of science relies on them, you'd be a moron, which is probably also why their show is doing so well, alongside "Here comes Honey Booboo".

True on most counts but if you want to see them blow stuff up while too wasted from the week they are fun to watch. Plus the robotics can be interesting even though I doubt Grants ability to do it on his own.

As for the thread, IIRC the Disney Concert Hall in downtown LA caused similar problems for the people living across the street. I think they ended up dulling the surface facing the building.

There's far more science in Mythbusters than you'll ever get sifting through the bullshait your average science or technology Fark thread. No one here is even trying to experiment, work out problems, or look for facts. They're arguing their point of view. It's like reading opinion columns and calling it news.

Kit Fister:Okay, and if you expect a one-hour TV show to cover rigorous scientific testing of myths, you're an elitist prick.

What a depressingly anti-intellectual worldview - anthing that requires even a little thought and patience is "elitist", is it? One hour is plenty of time to cover things in a thoughtful way - not as thoroughly as a scientific paper of course, but a lot better than what they actually do.

Dow Jones and the Temple of Doom:It's a horrible show, but it's fine entertainment for the tards. I don't give a shiat if you like it, just don't pretend it's anything but a couple goofballs breaking shiat in a warehouse

I honestly don't get the Mythbusters hate. Yes, they sometimes screw up but an army of nerds calls them on every failing and the revisits are not infrequent.

Some of the myths they test can be attributed to something happening under "perfect conditions", like shooting a bullet into the barrel of another gun - it might be a 1 in a billion thing, but to say "busted" just because it's improbable doesn't necessarily mean it's impossible.

Then there's myths like riding a motorcycle 300 feet across an 8-foot deep lake. That totally floored me. I'd have thought surface tension would have been broken by 500+ pounds (motorcycle + rider) within 20 feet. That was definitely a "WTF" episode for me. :)

tripleseven:joeshill: Dow Jones and the Temple of Doom: The Mythbusters never "bust" anything but their own ineptitude.

Mythbusters, whose motto is: We couldn't figure out how to do it, therefore it cannot be done.

As opposed to yourself, who has a long standing and tarnish free record of proving or disproving myths. I am sure its all be documented, and peer reviewed, so, pony up, big mouth.

Your witty remark would carry more weight if I were to have put myself out as a professional buster-of-myths.

I don't.

I simply realize that a hypothesis is not proven because you couldn't think of a way to falsify it.

"I hypothesize that it is impossible to set a ship afire with mirrors."Later that same year: "Well, I tried a few different methods, and couldn't set the ship afire - therefore, my hypothesis is correct!"

1. Did that car in that movie skip across water like a stone? Let's not look at the film and ask everyone involved how they did it, let's just make stuff up and decide.

2. There's this news story about a cop's gun that caught a bullet from another gun and is a matter of public record. It's in the news so it must be fake. Let's have a whole segment where we decide if the story and photos from the newspaper are a myth or not.

/the show would be much better if it was just a xkcd show of 'what ifs' and 'because we cans'.

joeshill:Dow Jones and the Temple of Doom: The Mythbusters never "bust" anything but their own ineptitude.

Mythbusters, whose motto is: We couldn't figure out how to do it, therefore it cannot be done.

I didn't know there was such hatred and mistrust for those guys. Okay, I'll admit that they seem to be looking forward to blowing things up more than actually doing their job, for the most part. But I always thought that their methods are pretty sound.

Voiceofreason01:Dow Jones and the Temple of Doom: The Mythbusters never "bust" anything but their own ineptitude.

yes, yes you must be some kind of super genius because you can point out that the experiments in a show primarily about blowing stuff up are not always rigorously performed. Besides that, they do a pretty good job given the limitations of the medium: production time, budget and air time.

I lost all respect for the show when they became, what appears to me IMHO, a shill for promoting movies. You mean you can't curve the path of a bullet? I'm shocked, shocked, I tell you.

Bag-o-Nugs:FarkinNortherner: I honestly don't get the Mythbusters hate. Yes, they sometimes screw up but an army of nerds calls them on every failing and the revisits are not infrequent.

They consistently do bad science.

AND LABEL IT AS "SCIENCE". I find the show entertaining, but their methods are abysmal. Also, they sometimes confuse their ineptitude as scientists with busting a myth. Then there's that whole argument people have that they aren't actually exploring myths so much as examining/recreating scenes from movies.

FTFY...

You can also tell from the beginnings on certain myths if they are planning on it ending up "Busted' or not. The Archimedes Death Ray is a great example, they set the bar so high, it's never going to be proven... They are taking a thousands of years old legend and interpreting it literally... The ships have to burst into flame to have it pass, although even a small fire on a ship, especially in the middle of a war in hostile water is a bad thing. On top of that, the legend says something like "30 bow lengths", so they set it to be that distance EXACTLY, not leaving room for natural embellishment of the story.

The other thing with their techniques that bother me is their extremely small control group sizes for subjective things like "beer goggles" and if you are more affected driving tired than after drinking. They'll have the 3 or 4 people on the second crew(Sometimes seems to be a guest) drive a course once, drink some alcohol, drive it once again, and then let the alcohol wear off, but stay up late and drive it again. Should be more than one trial of each so that they can get an accurate baseline. The 'beer goggles' one was stupid, since they didn't actually factor in what's involved in lowered inhibitions making you more willing to take home an unattractive person.

The 'Improving gas mileage by tailgating a semi truck' one, on the other hand, was perfect, they did a great job there.

I agree though, it's like nails on a chalkboard when they call their crappy methods "science", my stepsons know not to take anything they say on that show as actual science, and if they have questions about any of the experiments, we can research them together, and most likely find more accurate results in our first Google search.

MooseUpNorth:Dow Jones and the Temple of Doom: Voiceofreason01: Dow Jones and the Temple of Doom:Have you seen an episode lately? They don't even bust "myths" anymore, just random potholes from shiatty 80's movies.

Pedantically criticizing the title of the show is totally a real point and not at all you mindlessly sticking to a broken talking point in a blatant plea for attention.

It's a horrible show, but it's fine entertainment for the tards. I don't give a shiat if you like it, just don't pretend it's anything but a couple goofballs breaking shiat in a warehouse

/also: Archimedes sought to burn a fleet of Roman ships using the Sun. The skyscraper melted plastic in a stationary vehicle. Point: Mythbusters. Seriously, they've tested this myth like 3 times now... Even Obama couldn't get them to do it.

Mythbusters is prepared lines and pandering to the lowest denominator.

They haven't ever busted shiat, even when trying to look past all their bullshiat, the holes in scientific methods is obvious. If your understanding of authorities of science relies on them, you'd be a moron, which is probably also why their show is doing so well, alongside "Here comes Honey Booboo".

I feel sad for you, that you somehow can't enjoy Mythbusters as science based entertainment. That you somehow can't understand that they are not making grand pronouncements of reality, but that within the scope of their operation that something was doable or not. That you somehow can't appreciate that the absolute core of science is that ideas should be tested, and that as long as that message gets through there is extreme educational value to it in addition to the fun of seeing things blown up.

Come to the light, brother. You don't have to live in such darkness and hatred.

MooseUpNorth:Dow Jones and the Temple of Doom: Voiceofreason01: Dow Jones and the Temple of Doom:Have you seen an episode lately? They don't even bust "myths" anymore, just random potholes from shiatty 80's movies.

Pedantically criticizing the title of the show is totally a real point and not at all you mindlessly sticking to a broken talking point in a blatant plea for attention.

It's a horrible show, but it's fine entertainment for the tards. I don't give a shiat if you like it, just don't pretend it's anything but a couple goofballs breaking shiat in a warehouse

Lol, I literally said "I don't care if you like it" in the post you quoted, yet you used that pic anyway. Typical Mythbusters level of intellect...